What if?  The Goblet of Fire
by SIZ
Summary: What if the Triwizard tournament was never cancelled for all those years, and had just kept being held routinely by the three schools involved, instead of the custom being halted before Arthur and Molly's time at Hogwarts? My first 'What if' based story.


**AN**: Hello, and welcome to my first '_What if?_' fanfic! In a series of hopefully more. These 'What if?' fics are pretty easy to explain, in a way they're like little parallel universes situated in the HP timeline, based on a tiny change that results in a story. The thing changed this time, is pretty insignificant, so doesn't exactly mess around much with the general story. Though it does generate quite an interesting side-tale (: The _'What if?'_ prompt I've thought of for this story is-  
><strong>'What if the Triwizard tournament was never cancelled for all those years, and had just kept being held routinely by the three schools involved, instead of the custom being halted before Arthur and Molly's time at Hogwarts?'<strong>  
>This is the first time I've actually planned a fic, at least to this extent. This is including planning out chapters and sorting out and summarising characters beforehand and stuff, researching loads of things like dates and even names in some cases. Also tried to make my chapters longer, sort of more like lengths. So I hope you enjoy it. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun writing this.<p>

**Warning** - There are quite a few original characters in this, but only because the story wouldn't work without them.  
>All canon characters however, belong to J.K Rowling.<br>Main pairing in this is Arthur & Molly, because they're awesome.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Platform 9<strong>__**¾**_

The atmosphere of Kings Cross Station was fantastic. The dusty air seemed to be making the surroundings glow, reflecting light from under the glass roof, which was letting in plenty of mid-morning sun. Slight trails of steam were billowing over the crowd from the proud scarlet steam engine in front of him. Around him Arthur could hear happy hellos and sad goodbyes as pupils prepared to board the train to once again, to leave for Hogwarts. Close by a woman was bawling loudly, squeezing her child tightly as the father tried to gently wrench her off him.  
>Arthur had already said goodbye to his family, and had made his own way there, leaving them at home, his older brothers having both graduated over the last few years. Now he was scouring the crowd with his eyes for familiar faces. A buzz of excitement seemed to be building within him, he had a feeling this was going to be his best year yet.<p>

While pushing and apologizing his way through the crowd of bustling people, excitedly babbling children and nervous animals, Arthur suddenly heard his name being called from behind him.

"Arthur!" He had hardly enough time to look round before a pair of arms grabbed him around his middle, causing him to almost wind himself on the handle bars of his luggage-trolley. Though he was surprised, he was pretty sure who he knew who this person was. In fact he was certain.

"Guess who," The voice giggled from behind him, arms still around his middle. Smiling, he turned round  
>"It wouldn't be a Molly Prewett, by any chance?" He chuckled. The young woman looking up at him beamed, the golden glow of the sun bouncing off her shoulder-length red hair. Her grin relaxed a little<br>"I missed you," She said matter-of-factly, "Why didn't you visit?" She almost sounded as though she was telling him off, though she always sort of sounded like that.  
>"Me too. My family and I were camping for most of the summer," He said, his fingers absentmindedly mingling with her hair. "I sent you a lot of letters though, didn't you get any?"<br>"I got a few," She said "But your owl seemed very puffed out, almost knocked over a vase landing the second time." She leaned her chin on his chest and looked up at him contentedly, her arms still securely around his waist.  
>"I sent a lot more than a few," Arthur frowned "Ruddy owl." Molly just smiled again as she inspected a slight hole in his jacket<br>"Yes, well… It doesn't matter now." She said looking up at him again. Arthur smiled once more as they just sort of looked at each other, seeming to drink in each other's faces. Truthfully, he had missed her a lot while he was away, climbing hills and cooking on campfires with not much else to think about as they all trudged up the muddy slopes and watched the flames flicker in the darkness. Molly's hair had always reminded him of fire, he looked at it as he twiddled it between his clumsy fingers; the single strands each seeming to be a slightly different colour in the light. Molly had been one of his best friends since coming to Hogwarts, let alone being his girlfriend (he still felt a bit odd saying that) since mid-way-through fifth year (when she had suddenly pounced on him in the library). He was glad that they gotten to their seventh without much trouble or drama.  
>Once they had got together though, a lot of people had acted like they'd been waiting for it for years, saying things like '<em>Finally!'<em> and _'Wait, so they weren't before?'_ But some other people had been quite surprised, it had been a very odd atmosphere.

Finally letting Arthur out of her war-hold/hug, Molly smoothed out the creases that had formed in her jumper front and took his large hand in hers, nodding towards the now, steaming even more forcefully, train.  
>"We'd better go find seats," She said, still a slight smile on her pretty face, her brothers had obviously gone off on their own. Arthur slowly leant over and pressed his lips to hers softly, then pulled away<br>"I really did miss you," He said, still gazing at her face through his glasses. Molly's content smile returned, looking very genuine. Her face had gone slightly pink. but whether that was from the heat of the steam or not he had no idea.

"I know," She said softly, giving his hand a squeeze.

* * *

><p>After sorting out his luggage, him and Molly walked along the familiar, carpeted corridors of the steam train. The insides were also very reddish, with slight tinges and trimmings of gold in places; His house colours and his favourite colours.<p>

They glanced through compartment doors, trying to find an empty one, before someone laughed very loudly up the hall- Bertie Pryce. The excited voice greeted them as they walked by the door

"Arthur! Good to see you mate!" Pryce shouted happily, his eyes soon flicking to Molly. "Molly," He said, nodding politely. Molly nodded back, then bid Arthur a goodbye and went to look for her own group of friends. Arthur walked through the door and plopped onto a seat, grinning. "What you been up to all summer, Arthur?" Pryce asked after Arthur had greeted his other two friends sitting with them.

"Camping," Arthur shrugged "You?"

"Went to France for a couple of weeks, it was alright but nothing special." Pryce said, glancing towards the guy sitting next to him, who had his nose stuck in a book. "What you been up to, bookworm?" Pryce asked, elbowing him. The guy looked up, annoyed, but put the book down.  
>"Stuff," He said simply<br>"Stuff. You mean you've been sitting at home all summer reading." Pryce said matter-of-factly. The other guy, Will, shrugged this time  
>"Basically." He smiled slightly. Pryce gave an over-dramatic sigh<p>

"Will, you've got to learn how to live mate. Not spend all your time reading these stupid books. What is this anyway?" He asked, picking up the book indelicately by its spine. Will flinched as he did this but didn't do anything else. The book was light blue, with an assortment of plants on the front

"It's my new herbology textbook." He said, reaching to grab it out of Pryce's hands. "It's really interesting,"  
>"God, I'm glad I don't have to take that stupid class anymore. I'm telling you, if we had to do it for another 2 years I'd die of boredom. Pruning things that can bite back just doesn't really appeal to me, you know?" Pryce said, leaning back on the doors with an air of pompousness. Will just gave him an un-amused look and inspected his book for damage, used to his antics.<p>

"What about you, Al?" Pryce half yelled as he stretched and poked a sandy-haired boy staring out the window with his foot.  
>"Hm? What?" Alan asked as he looked round<br>"You're so not with it, Al." Pryce said bossily, "I asked what you did this summer." The boy just raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing?" Pryce said incredulously. "God, we're a boring lot aren't we." He leant back on the doors, half grinning. "Oh well, I hear this year's meant to be pretty special." Will looked unsurprised by this comment but Al and Arthur looked round with interest.

"What are you talking about?"  
>"Well, it's been four years init? The Triwizard tournament, o'course. I swear Arthur, you're as bad him sometimes." Pryce said, gesturing to Alan, who had got distracted and was inspecting a loose thread on the seat. "It was held at Durmstrang last time, so it'll be at Hogwarts this time." Pryce said, seeming to relish is having information other people didn't for once.<p>

"I might even enter myself," Pryce said proudly, puffing up his chest. Will snorted from behind his book, causing Pryce to shoot him a glare and kick him lightly as he started laughing. "What?" Pryce yelled defiantly

"You? Compete in the tournament? What did you get in your last round of tests, like three Troll grades?" Will said, grinning. Pryce kicked him again and folded his arms.  
>"Doesn't matter, those classes just didn't interest me. Didn't want to spend my valuable time on them." Will went back to reading his book, a grin still etched on his face.<br>"Right." He snickered. Pryce dismissed this and got out a box from his pocket  
>"Who fancies a game of exploding snap?" He grinned<p>

As they started the game, the steam engine jerked into movement, pulling away from the station and out of the city, to worm it's way grandly through the countryside. The hours seemed to pass a lot quicker than Arthur could remember from the first time he'd rode the train. Over the hours the sky got gradually darker, and soon they could see mountains silhouetted against the dim.

* * *

><p>The hall buzzed with excitement. People were chatting happily and moving around in their seats to greet old friends, the voices reverberating loudly off the walls. The sorting had finished and the houses were gleefully welcoming and getting to know their new students. Pryce had been one of the loudest at the Gryffindor table during the sorting, whooping enthusiastically whenever someone got sorted into their house. Now he was banging his hands on the table in a rhythm, impatiently waiting for the food to appear<br>"God I'm starving. Do you think they'll have that chicken this year?" He asked, looking round. Will sighed exasperatedly  
>"They have that every year, you idiot." Pryce just grinned though, absorbing the atmosphere<br>"Just making sure." He said cheerfully, bouncing very slightly in his seat. His pointed hat was threatening to fall off his head. Arthur chuckled at the scene, and then looked round at the nervous first years, two of which had chosen to sit next to him.  
>What's your name?" He asked, the two eleven year olds stared up at the teenager admirably. One bravely turned to him and stuck out her hand<br>"I'm Sarah Hawk ," She said confidently, the boy behind her seemed be using her as a shield "And that's Perce." She said, nodding towards the nervous one. Arthur smiled  
>"I'm Arthur. If you need any help with getting to classes or anything don't be afraid to ask, okay? Been here for seven years, know this place like the back of my hand." He said, trying to give the cowering boy a kind look. "And don't worry about him," He said, motioning to the exuberant Pryce on the other side of him, "He's pretty loud but that's all he is really." He smiled, cheerfully. The girl smiled back, then looked behind him as a familiar teacher started walking towards the front of the room.<p>

"Quiet, please, quiet." Dumbledore was standing there, smiling softly at his students. Everyone fell silent, the Slytherin table taking the longest. "Welcome, to our new students," He nodded in a greeting fashion. "And welcome back old ones, I think this year will prove to be most interesting." He said, his eyes twinkling. "As you may know, it has been four years since the last Triwizard Tournament-" Quite a few people started cheering at this point (including the over-excited Pryce). Dumbledore continued smiling but held his hands up for quiet, the crowd settled back down. "And in October we will be welcoming our guests and I hope you will try to be hospitable and civil. I don't want any scraps over the competition." Dumbledore said seriously, then put his hands together, smiling.  
>"Now, I'm sure you're all extremely hungry, so I won't bore you with my chit-chat any longer, let the feast commence!" He lifted his hands in the air, and with that, the silver platters around the table suddenly flooded with food. Everyone grabbed and ate gleefully, feasting on a mixture of savoury and sweet. It was delicious, as always. Arthur always thought that after how many other feasts he'd had he would be used to them by now, but no matter what, the food at Hogwarts always seemed to be unique and grand enough to make anyone hungry. Having not had much on the train, Arthur stuffed himself to the brim, Pryce chewing next to him with a slightly stupid satisfied face spread over his cheeks.<p>

* * *

><p>Tired yawns sounded and slow footsteps trudged up the stone corridors as pupils made their way to their comfy common rooms. The Gryffindors walked up the stairs, the older ones knowing the way as if it were simple, and the little first years scampering after them out of fear of getting lost. Soon people around him started breathing quite heavily making their way slowly up the levels, out of practice and extremely full from the feast.<br>"This way!" He heard a familiar voice call to the younger students, who tried desperately to get to the front of the crowd so they could follow the Gryffindor prefects.

" Look at 'em, they're so little!" Pryce chuckled, as if it was hilarious. "God, can you imagine us that size?"  
>"Yes, I seem to remember you had quite large front teeth." Will said smugly, dodging Pryce as he made to hit him again.<p>

"Time's gone fast," Arthur said, a bit sadly. Pryce rested his arm on Arthur's shoulders as they joined the queue in front the picture of the fat lady.

"Yeah, it has mate." He agreed, grinning "This is gonna be a good year though, I can feel it."  
>"Are you sure that's not just gas? You did eat <em>a lot.<em>" Will snickered  
>"What <em>is<em> your problem, Will?" Pryce snapped irritably, while Will and Arthur just grinned at his annoyance. "Seriously though, this is gonna be great. The Triwizard tournament, loads of food and classes I actually want to be in. Well, most of them," Pryce said, shrugging. "Either way, I hear the Beauxbaton students are pretty foxy," He said, winking  
>"Classy," Will muttered, derisively.<p>

"The password is, Antimorphus!" The fat lady bowed her head in acceptance and the portrait swung open. "Remember that password, first years." The prefect said, sternly. And then allowed the students to pour in through the gap after her. As Arthur stepped inside, the familiar warmth of the room spread over him and he watched as the first years gawped at all the chairs and the fireplace, a fire flickering within it cheerfully. "Follow me and I'll show you your dorm rooms." The prefect barked. "Come on!" The ten first years snapped out of their gazes and began trotting along after her.

"It's good to be back!" Pryce yelled contentedly as he collapsed onto a squashy sofa, taking up the whole seat with his arms and legs stretched out on the material. Arthur had to admit he agreed. As much as he liked camping, it had been quite cold and uncomfortable at times, and his home wasn't much better, getting quite drafty as the weather began to get more wintery.

Arthur sunk into an armchair as the other two also sat down, enjoying the cosiness. Alan looked like he was about to fall asleep, his eyelids drooping even more than usual as he stifled another yawn. The food and the warmth were obviously not helping, because eventually he allowed his head to loll backwards and he started to snore. Alan had always seemed to be sleepy and tired, to be honest he was never really alert. Pryce was also watching him, a look of parent-ish disappointment on his face as he shook his head; he then got the box out his pocket again.  
>"Fancy another game of exploding snap, Arthur?" Pryce asked, holding up the box. Will sighed heavily again<br>"Not again! You played that all the way here!" Pryce just sent him a glare  
>"Well you don't have to play, do you?" He argued back, silencing him. Then he turned back to Arthur "Well?" Arthur smiled<br>"Yeah, alright." He reached into his own pocket to get his cards. Pryce grinned widely as they swapped piles, shuffling each other's before swapping back again. Pryce raised his pile to look at what his first card was.  
>"Right, you go first," He said, looking at Arthur. Arthur set down his first card, then Pryce, then him again, the routine continuing for quite a while. Until,<p>

BANG! Alan snorted and woke up with a start, looking this way and that for the source of the noise as Will rolled his eyes,  
>"Ahh, Arthur, that was your card! Two dragons, point to me!" Pryce said gleefully. He always seemed to win at this game, which was the reason he liked playing it so much. He picked up the cards that were already in the pile and added them to his collection.<br>"Gah, I liked that card as well." Arthur frowned, looking at the smoking remains, then settled as they started once more. He lost again. Either he was useless or Pryce had very good luck. By the time Pryce had decided they'd played enough (which took a long time), Arthur only had about three cards left. Pryce sportingly gave him back what Arthur had lost, his reasoning being, to Will's disapproval, 'If you don't have any cards we won't be able to bug him any more'.

Arthur had laughed, eaten and chatted his way into a sleepy stupor. He felt a bit like Alan at that moment, finding it a tad hard to keep his eyes open. He yawned loudly and stood up  
>"I'm going to bed," He said, looking round at the rest of the common room as he stretched, only a few of the originally large crowd were now dotted around the chairs. Alan got up as well, slightly struggling to stand up he was so tired.<br>"M-me too." He mumbled. He'd already fell asleep around five times that evening, though kept being shocked awake by the explosions of the card game. Arthur put an arm round his shoulders to somewhat support him, while Pryce stood up quickly  
>"Don't leave me with him!" He exclaimed motioning towards Will, not sounding tired at all. Will rolled his eyes yet again and got up, the four of them making their way up the stairs to their dorm room. Once they got inside, they saw that the other Gryffindor boy in their year, Phillip Rolst, had already got into bed and had drawn his bed curtains around himself, sleepy noises drifting through the material.<br>"God, he's noisy." Muttered Pryce, gesturing to him "Dunno how I'm going to sleep tonight."  
>"Speak for yourself," Alan slurred as he yawned again and stumbled his way to his bed, sitting on it and pulling the curtains round immediately, probably falling asleep in his uniform. Arthur and Will agreed and made their way to their beds, leaving a hyped up Pryce in the middle of the room. They were quite glad they were going to sleep before him anyway; he was by far the loudest sleeper.<p>

Arthur had missed his bed. It was so comfy at that moment it was almost unbelievable. Just having enough energy to change into his pyjamas, he felt himself slipping away almost as soon as his head had hit the pillow. He took off his glasses, putting them on the surface near him before allowing himself to be pulled into a deep slumber, dreaming soundly as owls hooted outside. Yes, this was going to be a good year.


End file.
